With only two features to their credit -- they co-wrote and co-directed 2006's Crank, and together scripted this past spring's Pathology -- maybe it's a bit premature to declare myself a fan of the duo known as Neveldine/Taylor. (Even if that's the case, Eugene's got my back.) Yes, I'm the guy psyched for Crank 2: High Voltage, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for other upcoming projects, such as the Gerard Butler actioner Game and the comic book adaptation Jonah Hex...
Well, now, the latter's lost maybe only a fraction of what precious little interest it had, as Neveldine/Taylor has reportedly walked away from directing the project, citing (and say it with me now) "creative differences." However, the implication from this Variety brief is that their script is already done and will be the same one that Josh Brolin is still tapped to star in (to Thomas Jane's probable dismay).
Something tells me that a film that's gathered this much attention to date won't go unmade, but it's now a matter of who will helm it. 2009 will remain the year of N/T regardless, with Crank 2 scheduled to open in April and Game in September.
It's the middle of the work week, and I think you need some violence to carry you through the rest. Yahoo! Movies has a new behind-the-scenes clip from Punisher: War Zone, which you can access by clicking the link or the scope of Frank Castle's gun. It's short, but sweet, with some peeks at the glorious violence that will make this a real Christmas treat, at least in my warped out world. There's not much new footage, but you get to hear from Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Julie Benz, the controversy magnet Lexi Alexander, and producer Gale Anne Hurd.
The best part? Hearing Stevenson's real Northern accent. I wish we had gotten a few more videos like these, Zack Snyder style, showing off the Punisher's hardware or something. My fondness for Stevenson has been well documented here, so you will sneer at that wish, but they really needed to sell their new Frank Castle. I'm convinced he's the perfect guy for the part, I just hope the film lets him prove it. If nothing else, at least we get to see someone killed by chair leg. I know that scene alone is going to be responsible for 95% of the tickets sold.
Since I started this crazy Cinematical gig, Gale Anne Hurd has become one of my heroes. She digs comic books, and she digs badass chicks, and she's often behind a movie that combines the two. And this project is no exception. According to Variety, she's has optioned Gearhead, Dennis Hopeless' four issue series from Arcana Comics.
Gearhead is the story of Shelby Cooper, a chick who disdains the electric cars and PC-living of a United States set in a fascist and post-apocalyptic future. She's the daughter of Gearhead, a vigilante hero who lacked superpowers, but fought crime with a giant wrench. Though she's more into racing and repairing her illegal gas guzzling car, she find herself taking on her father's vigilante persona in order to find her missing brother. All four issues are up on Wowio -- I've only read the first so far, but it seems like a lot of fun. Plus, Shelby owns a pug dog, which endears her to me even more than her skull-splitting ways.
Hurd is a self-avowed fan of the book, and told UGO last month that she thinks Ellen Page would be great in the title role. The dialogue certainly has that Page level of snark to it -- and it would be pretty fun to see her mouth off while bloodying someone up. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series, and looking forward to seeing Hurd bring another tough chick to the screen. Someone has to do it!
As William Goss noted yesterday, Guillermo Del Toro must be allergic to sleep. He's moving forward with another producing project on his insanely busy slate -- The Champions, a big screen version of the British television series of the 60s. Variety reports that Christopher McQuarrie will be penning the script for United Artists, and acting as a producer alongside Del Toro, Tom Cruise, and Paula Wagner. Del Toro optioned the project last November, and seemingly mindful of the anniversary, has brought on McQuarrie.
Frankly, I'm surprised The Champions hasn't been grabbed long before now, since everyone is dying to have a franchise of superheroes. The series (which ran for a single year) followed a team of government agents who were rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization. As if rescue wasn't nice enough, the super civilization gave them superpowers. Yeah, this is totally going to end up a franchise.
Del Toro has apparently found himself a writer as happy to be sans sleep as he is -- McQuarrie is a hot property at UA after Valkyrie. In addition to The Champions, he'll also be penning and producing The Monster of Florence. Based on Douglas Preston's book, it will follow his investigation into the serial killer nicknamed the Monster of Florence, Italy's version of Jack the Ripper. Preston discovered that one of the murders had been committed on his just-purchased Italian property, and decided to pair up with Italian journalist Mario Spezi to try and solve the case. Their well-meaning investigation ended up embroiled in controversy, arrests, and all kinds of tense insanity that should make for a really enjoyable crime movie -- and be easy peasy for the writer of The Usual Suspects.
First up, Variety reports that New Regency has grabbed Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity for a trip to the big screen. The time travel novel is set in a future where humanity is controlled by a ruling class called Eternity -- a lucky group who can alter history, remove undesirable people, the usual. But then one of the time cops falls for a girl back in time (like Somewhere in Time?)... I imagine we can expect a pretty big visual production with this puppy -- before a writer is chosen, the project is hunting for a director. Next, The Hollywood Reporter posts that J. Saunders Elmore's debut novel The Amateur American has been picked up by Likely Story. A political thriller, the novel centers on an American expat in France who has a job translating for "a shadowy powerbroker" who "draws him into violent political intrigue, corruption, and murder." I tell ya -- no job is safe these days! Ross Katz will adapt and direct the book, which hits shelves next summer.
Finally, Thor Freudenthal is picking up more family-friendly material, according to Variety. He's going to direct Ian Ogilvy's Measle and the Wrathmonk for Warner Bros. -- a piece that was purchased four years ago. The tale centers on a young kid who gets sent to live with his eccentric uncle, who happens to be a wizard. Gee, is it any surprise that this is part of a trilogy? I wonder if it will come out just as Potter mania wraps up...
Supposedly retired action maverick* Luc Besson, currently making the rounds on behalf of Transporter 3 (which he produced), told Collider that not only was 1997's The Fifth Element supposed to be the first in a trilogy, but that he also has vague plans for another sci-fi trilogy after finishing up the two sequels that no one asked for to Arthur and the Invisibles (see a pattern here?).
I must say: more power to the man if he just keeps coming up with ideas and happens to be good at executing them. As flimsy as his promise of retirement has been, if it brings us a sequel to District B13 and the reportedly entertaining Liam Neeson vehicle Taken (which doesn't open in the States until next January), then I can live with watching him keep on keepin' on, as it were.
(Well, except for those Arthur flicks, but perhaps that's a finger of blame better pointed towards the Weinsteins...)
*Us film bloggers are taking this word back, damn it.
Remove all proper nouns from the equation and Quantum of Solace isn't a B+ action flick. It's brisk and shiny, partially smart and frequently flashy; it's got loads of chases, escapes, fights, and explosions, as well as a game cast and a leading man who really sells the physical stuff. The plot is nothing more than your standard "angry spy on a mission" hoo-hah, but it works well enough to support the sport and the spectacle ... so why is it that Marc Forster's Quantum of Solace also feels like a missed opportunity, kind of an also-ran, and sort of a day late and a dollar short? Oh that's right. Because this is supposed to be a James Bond movie.
The 22nd James Bond movie, to be precise, and if you haven't checked into the series since the days of Moore or Dalton -- and you happened to start here instead of with Casino Royale -- you'd be absolutely stunned to see how stripped-down the character has become. Call it a combined effort between three screenwriters, numerous producers, and a stern-looking lead -- but this particular version of 007 has become pretty one-note in rather short order: The guy's a lug. A bad-ass, quietly noble, and effortlessly believable movie hero ... but where's the charm? The ambiguity? The escapist fun in trotting along with a confidently capable super-spy? I know Bond isn't the deepest character in the annals of fiction, but in his latest flick he's been fitted into an acrobatic grump with a basic grudge. This time out the angered agent sets out to track down the killer of his beloved Vesper, only to realize that, yep, another egomaniacal super-tycoon has secret plans that are both greedy and evil.
Even as the franchise began to shed staples with 2006's Casino Royale and tomorrow's Quantum of Solace, the James Bond series is still known for several keystones across twenty other films: girls, gadgets, guns, martinis, silhouettes of female figures thrusting about during the credits, and so on. Some would say that these were the traditions that helped lead James Bond down the path that would end in 2002's Die Another Day, which some would say made them want to take a top hat to their own throats. (Me? I didn't hate it.)
Among these recurring touches were the last lines, often cheeky turns of phrase that seemed to suggest that everything was going to be just fine between Commander Bond and that chick who we'd never see or hear about ever again. So, out of twenty-one films, I humbly offer up my picks for the seven best of the bunch. I'll leave you to find out if Quantum ends more along the lines of Royale's "The name's Bond... James Bond", or with something a bit sexier...
"It was all a dream! It was all a dream! It was all probably a coke-induced dream!"
My friend pointed me towards this clever YouTube video by the Fine Brothers, in which the duo do exactly what they set out to: reveal one hundred movie endings within four minutes. It's like the logical extension to that spoiler T-shirt that made the rounds a while back, and while the Meg Ryan streak they demonstrate (you'll see) is telling enough (not to mention the sports movie bits), I could see them pulling pretty much off the same thing with Drew Barrymore -- not that it's their fault, more so the industry's. (Oh, and this video is pretty much exactly what I get for not having seen Wild Things by this point in my life.)
And for those so inclined as to watch the same thing, only with the brothers naked, click here and, um, enjoy. (SPOILER ALERT! They're not wearing clothes!)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in their continued efforts to avoid awarding Oscars to deserving efforts in film scores, has apparently disqualified Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's work on The Dark Knight. According to Variety (by way of In Contention), the same stipulation as to how many composers are technically listed on the cue sheet similarly screwed over their Batman Begins score -- the stipulation being that listing multiple names helps to award royalties to music editors and designers as well.
I'd argue that the film -- which is bound to crack a billion bucks worldwide any day now, and likely to rack up considerable awards nominations regardless -- owes a great deal of its sustained visceral thrills to this rousing score, and in an ideal world, the December 9th release of the DVD would be enough for the Academy to whip around and shape up their bureaucratic brouhaha. To them, I simply ask this: why so serious?
Batman fans know that The Dark Knight borrowed heavily from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's graphic novel, The Long Halloween. In an interview with Flavorwire, Sale suggested that if Christopher Nolan was looking for a story to inspire a third Batman film, he might want to look at their Halloween sequel, Batman: Dark Victory.
The one catch for Nolan and Christian Bale? On its edge, Dark Victory is a Robin origin story -- but Sale points out that he was as resistant to the idea of including the Boy Wonder as Nolan is. "Jeph had to drag me to the idea of Robin kicking and screaming, but then I started living with a single mom, and she had an 8-year-old boy who over the years became more Robin-ish. Jeph based Bruce and Dick's relationship on mine with the boy, that push-and-pull. Dark Victory shows the change of Gotham from a town overrun by gangsters into a town that is governed by "freaks" (Jeph's term). His creation of triumvirate of Batman/Dent/Gordon - what they saw happening to their city and how they were going to address it - pushed the story farther than before. In many ways I think it is some of my best drawing. Not necessarily my best work, but my best drawing."
Dark Victory would be a great stepping stone for a third Batman film -- it's already a favorite of Bale's. Through the series, our bat-clad hero struggles with doubt, fear, working alone (refusing the help of Commissioner Gordon), and losing touch with his own humanity. Robin's intrusion into Batman's life helps center Batman, who begins treating him as something close to a son. If you are going to ever introduce Robin into the Nolan-verse, this would be the way to do it, since he's a far cry from the versions we've been subjected to onscreen.
It's been two months since we heard anything about the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Akira. This is a remake that has caused a bit of upset in our comments, as initial reports suggested DiCaprio was set to star alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
However, Gordon-Levitt denied having any connection to the film, and now DiCaprio has clarified his involvement. In an interview with MTV's Splash Page, he denied that he was going to be starring in Akira, nor will he be playing any part in Ninja Scroll (which he just optioned a few weeks ago). He made it clear that his only involvement is as producer, via his Appian Way banner.
So, where does Akira stand in pre-production? Remember, this was once being fast-tracked for a summer 2009 release, which it's obviously not going to make. But that's because DiCaprio is making sure this is handled right: "We're waiting for the final draft of the script. I'm a big fan of Japanese anime ... I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we're going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we're not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape."
If only big fans could be the producers on every beloved property, no fans would ever lose sleep. Are you slightly reassured, now? And hey, post your Akira dream cast. DiCaprio knows you're out there, and he might just listen.
At this point, the most dangerous threat James Bond faces does not shoot from the barrel of a gun or glimmer from the lens of a laser but instead springs from the tightly-coiled engine of the audience's expectations. Any new Bond film has to not only compete with the films that have come before but also the other high-end entries in the action genre; any political or moral ideas in the film have to compete with the political and moral landscape of the world we live in. Quantum of Solace, the 22nd Bond film, is Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond, and the blunt, brutal and brisk Casino Royale set the bar very high; if Casino Royale marked a return to greatness for the Bond franchise, Quantum of Solace represents a return to adequacy.
Directed by Mark Forster, Quantum of Solace has the basic bones of a Bond film -- globe-trotting settings, cars and chases, hair's-breadth escapes, nefarious plots. It does not, fortunately, have much of the fat that the worst Bond films have larded onto the series -- there's a minimum of high-tech gadgetry, no skiing sequences, no invisible cars, no henchmen with metal teeth. While Casino Royale brought Judi Dench's gruff spymaster M back to the series from the Brosnan era, it also brought Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion back to the franchise; in the new Bond era, cars crash and buildings break with thundering, shuddering force as Daniel Craig's Bond smashes, crashes and grunts his way through a hard, painful world. In the film's opening car chase, on the winding coastal roads of Italy, there are a number of moments where the crunch and thud of the action catches you up in a two-fisted grip of exhilaration and terror. Part of that's the stunt work, but a big part of it is Craig's Bond -- who you believe as being capable of executing a perfect shift-and-skid turn while firing an automatic weapon out of what used to be his car window with shards of glass lacerating his face.
Look to the right side of this post and tell me that you could possibly ignore that movie. I know that I can't, and that's what I've decided to share with you everything I just dug up on a little flick called Sharks in Venice (the trailer -- attached below the jump -- has Shark as singular, while IMDb lists both; already, the thrills!).
All I know is that none other than Stephen "Bio-Dome" Baldwin stars as an archaeologist who is forced by the Mafia to recover an underwater treasure ... one hidden beneath the very canals that are now swarming with sharks! But of course!
(Okay, maybe just one shark, which would be only slightly less bad.) (OK, bad-ass.)
If the IMDb message boards are to be believed, this puppy is sure making an odd bid for awards glory by premiering Stateside on the Sci-Fi Channel this December 14th, before hitting DVD the following January. However, bear in mind that supporting Sharks in Venice might be just what it takes to get that Meg project back off the ground. If you believe, clap your hands!
[Thanks to DVD Active for making my life that much closer to complete, and be sure to check out the trailer embedded below.]
It's a Watchmen week! New photos and posters are hitting the Internet this week, presumably in anticipation of the second trailer that's attached to Quantum of Solace. Yesterday Erik posted a new Rorschach-themed poster that had popped up on Yahoo! Movies over the weekend, now we have six new ones (including an extra Rorschach) to accompany it.
Warner Bros. released the six character posters all across the Internet -- and we were able to collect most of them here in our gallery, except for the one the boys most want to see. Silk Spectre is over on your left, watermarked to MTV's Splash Page, but if you click her, you'll be taken to her full length version. I'm as straight as can be, but even I can't take my eyes off her latex. Wow.
Please give a visit and a nod to the other sites that were graced with these cool images -- my personal favorite of the bunch, The Comedian, was posted over at the always awesome Hero Complex (who will have more Watchmen images later today). Dr. Manhattan was posted in a tiny, low-res version at Entertainment Weekly. (Come on, where's the big version, guys?) The really cool Ozymandias poster, costarring Bubastis, debuted over at Wired. Nite Owl comes by way of Access Hollywood, accompanied there by an automatic video of Patrick Wilson. And everyone's favorite vigilante, Rorschach, got his second poster of the week courtesy of USA Today.
They really are pretty glorious to look upon. And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to furiously exercise in order to wake up resembling Malin Akerman.
With only two features to their credit -- they co-wrote and co-directed 2006's Crank, and together scripted this past spring's Pathology -- maybe it's a bit premature to declare myself a fan of the duo known as Neveldine/Taylor. (Even if that's the case, Eugene's got my back.) Yes, I'm the guy psyched for Crank 2: High Voltage, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for other upcoming projects, such as the Gerard Butler actioner Game and the comic book adaptation Jonah Hex...
Since I started this crazy Cinematical gig, Gale Anne Hurd has become one of my heroes. She digs comic books, and she digs badass chicks, and she's often behind a movie that combines the two. And this project is no exception. According to Variety, she's has optioned Gearhead, Dennis Hopeless' four issue series from Arcana Comics.
As William Goss 
What would Hollywood do if there were no books?
Supposedly retired action maverick* 
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in 
It's been two months since we heard anything about the .jpg)
Look to the right side of this post and tell me that you could possibly ignore that movie. I know that I can't, and that's what I've decided to share with you everything I just dug up on a little flick called 
